Ten times larger than life, Bo Nix scans Northwest Texas as if Troy Franklin is coming open to the left of the Panhandle.
Nike and the Ducks unveiled a second Bo dacious! billboard in downtown Dallas yesterday, a shrewd marketing move that's already getting national attention.
Oregon QB Bo Nix has a new billboard in Dallas as part of his Heisman campaign.
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) August 22, 2023
(via @raincityseries) pic.twitter.com/C8xCNIcdzB
Earlier in fall camp Nix admitted to reporters that he enjoys a little trash talk at practice. “Well, I won’t back down from it,” he said. “I don’t really start it but if they want to start it I don’t mind finishing it … Yeah, see, like, I don’t cuss or anything … It’s just I take what they say and just kind of, you know, remind them that we’re still gonna attack them on offense or we’re still gonna go after them. And a lot of times my guys back me up so that’s a good thing.”
As trash talk goes the content of the billboard is pretty mild. "Bodacious" is bold, playful and fun, willing to take chances. The chief aim of the campaign is to promote Nix and the Oregon brand and by that measure it's already a massive success.
The trash-talking element of the billboards lies in their placement: downtown Manhattan, the marketing epicenter of American culture; downtown Dallas, the heart of football-crazy Texas. Nix's image is setting up to pass right at Tyler Shough and the Texas Tech Red Raiders. The inference, the implied message, is that the Ducks are the show, the most exciting brand in college football. I'm the Oregon quarterback; you're just a guy who used to play here.
Absolutely nothing wrong with that as a statement, but as with all trash talk, when you put it out there you have back it up. Competitors like Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant used trash talk both to get in opponents' heads and get their own adrenaline flowing.
It'll be interesting to see if they add other billboards, maybe in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Seattle.
Both as a Heisman campaign and a motivational tool, it's brilliant, ten times better than painting "f*ck Utah" on your fingernails like Caleb Williams did. But it does put a target on Nix's back. It says, "We're gunning for you." Shough, the Red Raiders and every other opponent will take it as an extra challenge. That's okay--it adds to the fun of the game. But if Oregon State manages to upset the Ducks for the second year in a row, don't be surprised to see Benny Beaver take a chainsaw to a Nix poster in the fourth quarter.
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